With God, all things are possible. “I’m writing this on Good Friday, the day that marks Christ’s crucifixion: a good day to remember just how hopeless things can seem without really being hopeless at all. I know a lot of PJM readers are feeling pretty bad about the current political situation. And I don’t mean to happy-face anything. Our country’s in trouble. I’ve never seen a government this lawless, this unconstitutional, this unAmerican and, which in a way is worse, never saw the news media so supine, so frozen in the headlights of their own ill-considered philosophy.” Happy Easter

Keep fighting! “It is possible to give up and give in to despondent hopelessness. But hope breaks in. It breaks into the world, into the human soul, and into our lives. Even if it isn’t immediately visible to the eye, it is there. That is the life-giving, love-creating Easter news. We can hope, and hope will change the world. This Easter Day we are invited to sense the hope that sustains us. We are invited to relish and take courage from the hope of life, of love, and of new beginnings. Even if it is not seen at first glance, it is there… Easter hope, and that’s worth celebrating.”Easter 2014: A celebration of hope

Yes, as long as the government continues to forget that they work for us, we’re going to remain very, very angry. “That’s because the realm of politics can’t provide us a foundation for neighborliness and forbearance. At a time when so many expect government to save us because nothing else seems up to the task, we ought to realize that one thing government definitely can’t save us from is our mutual enmity. In fact, the more we believe that our political challenges can only be solved at the national level, the more angry we’ll grow with one another, as all possibilities of governance become an all-or-nothing game. Lincoln was just wrong to hope that “reverence for the laws” would become our ‘political religion.’ ”Cliven Bundy Is Angry—Just Like the Rest of Us

Read it and weep. “In 2013, the major entitlement programs – Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other health care consumed 49 percent of all federal spending. These programs, and interest on the debt, are on track to consume an even greater share of spending in future years, while the portion of federal spending dedicated to other national priorities will decline.” Where Did Your Tax Money Go?

The war on women exists only in the minds of some idiot Leftists who have to stir up resentment among the many women who simply don’t pay attention to what’s really going on. “She gave a dramatic eye-roll in reaction to all of the fuss that Democrats and the president attempted to create over equal pay for women last week. A Democrat herself, she said she has carved out a decent, comfortable life for her family over the years as a waitress at a local restaurant. “I am in many ways my own boss,” she explained. “It is up to me to get the order right, treat people well, and use my personal skills to increase my wages.” And she is “sick and tired of my party treating me like a victim. This is not 1970, and it’s insulting.” Then she elbowed the waiter standing beside her, who joked that, despite being younger, he has to work twice as hard to keep up with her earnings. This woman’s frustration with Democrats comes from social and traditional media flooded with tweets, emails and news reports, and from the president himself, all pushing the message that he will protect women from evil Republicans who want to keep her gender from its rightful earning power. The president, she said, “is trying to create a wedge issue when there isn’t one. Why can’t he focus on things people are really concerned about, like bringing back lost jobs, a tangible thing that has affected housing, communities, tax bases and schools?” The Democrats’ Latest False Wedge Issue

Only 37 percent? Read the whole thing. “Thirty-seven percent (37%) of Likely U.S. Voters now fear the federal government, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Forty-seven percent (47%) do not, but another 17% are not sure.” 37% of Voters Fear the Federal Government

Barry Goldwater

Ground breaking. “Even as Goldwater was losing 44 states, there were remarkable signs of grass-roots enthusiasm for his conservative message. Historian Steven Hayward points out that the Goldwater campaign received more than 1 million contributions, 400,000 of them in amounts under $10. Four years earlier, Richard Nixon’s campaign had received only 40,000 contributions. In 1964, the GOP’s center of gravity began its decisive shift to the West and South. Of the 12 presidential elections that followed 1964, Republicans have won seven, and every GOP ticket since the Goldwater campaign has included a conservative. Who doubts today that conservatives constitute the party’s base? Until 50 years ago, Republican presidential hopefuls competed for the imprimatur of the party’s liberal establishment. Now, even the Republican establishment calls itself conservative — while Goldwater, savaged by Democrats in 1964, is described with affection and admiration by Democrats in 2014. Goldwater lost a presidential election, but he changed the face of American politics. All winning candidates appeal to the mainstream. But only the most influential redirect it.” Liberals now love Barry Goldwater, but his 1964 loss won the GOP’s future

Big Government

Big government not going away anytime soon. “Then other claimants emerge, with compelling reasons why they, too, are deserving of relief. Soldiers, for instance, who weren’t wounded, but who served in wartime and couldn’t find employment in peacetime. Politicians cannot resist such entreaties, so the program grows, and keeps growing. Constituencies arise around these programs, along with special interests with fiduciary interests in perpetually expanding them. And so it goes. Peter Berkowitz, another respected Hoover scholar (and an RCP contributor), has urged conservative candidates and office-holders to go beyond platitudes about repealing entitlement programs. “Big government is here to stay and it’s not going away in the foreseeable future,” he says. “So we abandon talk of small government and talk instead about limiting government, and making government more efficient – and smarter.” We could start with the Census Bureau.” Government Hypocrisy, Thinly Disguised

The Clintons

Fearing the internet. “’Some time back in 1994 or 1995, Bill and Hillary Clinton had what I would now describe as ‘a prophetic nightmare,’” explains Farah. “Everyone who was conscious back then will remember Hillary talking about this bad dream in a television interview in which she explained that her husband’s problems were all manufactured by ‘a vast right-wing conspiracy.’ This nightmare is chronicled the complete version of the Communication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce, which I intend to publish later this year in its entirety. This was a report distributed to select U.S. reporters in an effort to discredit a new breed of investigative journalism into what was, until now, already emerging as the most scandal-plagued administration in the history of the United States.’” RELEASED! CLINTON FILES ON MEDIA ENEMIES: Learn what Hillary meant by ‘vast right-wing conspiracy’

Why the Left fears the internet. Drudge forever changed journalism in January of 1998 when he reported that Bill Clinton had a sexual relationship with a White House intern and that Newsweek killed the story to protect its ally in the White House. As former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who has pioneered the use of social media to get her message out, has said, the “new media rose up precisely because the old media failed to tell the truth.” That very first new media breakthrough was about 15 years ago when this lowly little store clerk in a lowly little apartment equipped with his computer and a modem broke one of the biggest stories of the decade. His name was Matt Drudge and the rest is history,” shesaid. Palin added that the establishment “denounced Drudge as irresponsible and unprofessional and even dangerous and anti-everything from motherhood to apple pie.” “How dare that nobody from nowhere without a degree or a pedigree try to influence the national discourse? But the real reason they feared him was because he wasn’t beholden to the old media’s machine and the Thought Police. Unshackled, he was free,” Palin explained. And so were millions of other Americans who would have access to news and alternative points of view.” CLINTON ADMIN FEARED INTERNET’S ABILITY TO DEMOCRATICIZE NEWS 3 YEARS BEFORE DRUDGE BOMBSHELL

Common Core

The Left despises freedom. Because free men cannot be controlled. “Not only is this list being taught to second graders a perversion of the principles upon which America was actually founded, but also noticeably missing from this list of principles upon which the country was founded is liberty, the very thing under attack on a daily basis by the left led by Barack Obama.” Common Core Scrubs ‘Liberty’ as a Founding Principle

Elections

He was never going to bring us all together, and he knew it. “This was a man who spoke eloquently of a new day in America. “The time has come,” he said, “to move beyond the bitterness and anger and pettiness that’s consumed Washington; to end the political strategy that’s been all about division. And instead make it about addition; to build a coalition for change that stretches through red states and blue states.” It’s possible, I guess, that Barack Obama meant every word. But I suspect he meant that we could all achieve this wonderful, post-partisan, can’t-we-all-just-get-along America if – but only if – Republicans saw things the way he does; only if conservatives jumped on his liberal bandwagon and helped him “fundamentally transform the United States of America” — the way he thought it should be transformed.” President Obama and Stoking Resentments

Hypocrisy. “9. I’ll vote Democrat because I believe oil company’s profits of 4% on a gallon of gas are obscene, but the government taxing the same gallon of gas at 15% isn’t.” Top Ten Reasons to Vote Democrat in 2014

I hope their ride is unbearably bumpy. “Democrats are finding that their path to keeping control of the U.S. Senate this year is getting bumpier. At least four states where Democrats hold Senate seats that once were seen as fairly safe are now considered in play: Michigan, Iowa, Colorado and New Hampshire. They join seven states with Democratic incumbents where analysts see decent bets for Republican pickups: Alaska, Arkansas, Louisiana, Montana, North Carolina, South Dakota and West Virginia. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney carried all seven in 2012.” Trouble for Democrats: More Senate seats are at risk

November is coming, and we will prevail. “If Republicans are going to take over the Senate in November, it will be due to their ability to expand the map and challenge in states where they weren’t expected to make much of a race of things. Obamacare plays a role in this, no doubt. But in Iowa, Michigan, Colorado, and New Hampshire, the GOP has been able to recruit top flight candidates who are well funded, seasoned campaigners.” More opportunities open up for GOP to gain Senate seats

Foreign Policy

“Putin understands that for European Union leaders, economics trumps principle. Perhaps this is why, in an episode of the talk show “Vesti v Subbotu” (Vesti on Saturday) aired on Saturday, April 19, Putin ignored the fact that he had invaded the country and complained that the new Ukrainian government had fallen behind on their payments for Russian gas.” Putin to Ukraine: Pay Up

Global warming tipping points go back as far as 1989. “The UN is trying to scare us into believing we have only 15 years left. It looks ridiculous doing so, considering all the similar declarations that have come and gone. A brief history of “climate tipping point” declarations discloses that the only scary hot air comes from warmist blowhards. Marc Morano at Climate Depot debunks the fake hysteria being generated to jjstify a massive tax and power grab.” The hilarious history of ‘climate tipping points’

Read the WHOLE thing. “Ben Franklin opined that there was nothing certain but death and taxes. I’d add a third to the list of certainties, anti-Semitism, and this week reminds us of that. As Americans struggled with preposterously complex federal income tax regulations and ever-higher tax burdens, the Washington Examiner’s Timothy P. Carney tweeted “That’s the price we pay for 7 of the 10 richest counties being within commuting distance of DC.” Right he is. As the rest of the country struggles to keep on producing — cattle, grain, merchandise, services — hamstrung by ever more regulations and executive and judicial branch overreaching, DC lives high on the hog off that labor. Drive up and see expensive restaurants full of patrons every night and elegant spas and hotels fully booked. The price of real estate in the nation’s capital keeps soaring, as it does in the near suburbs. At the moment 86 million full- time private sector employees sustain 148 million benefit takers. Greetings, suckers! [Snip] Do you suppose that Democrats — the chief American statists, class warriors, multiculturalists, and internationalists — are any different than their European counterparts? I don’t. Keep electing them and we will become more like Europe in its repulsive and pervasive anti-Semitism as we have in every other regrettable way.” Death, Taxes, and Anti-Semitism

“One suspects the respectful greeting Piketty is receiving is because the White House crowd wants to believe free markets are bad and must be thwarted in the name of justice. And, of course, who better to dole out “justice” than the very mandarins inhabiting the West Wing and Oval Office?” White House honors French neo-Marxist

The Left’s war on women continues. “Naomi Wolf has joined the Hamas chorus by attacking feminist hero Phyllis Chesler for being a Zionist agent. Wolf has adopted the language of Jew-haters the world over — an even more bitter irony coming from someone who has written an entire book comparing democratic America to Nazi Germany. And Chesler’s sin? To have dared to challenge the Left’s party line of defending the Islamic mutilators of adolescent girls, and practitioners of gender apartheid. But then again, this isn’t anything new for Wolf, seeing that she is on the record for finding the burqa sexy.” Naomi Wolf’s Hypocrisy: Still Not at an End?

Why isn’t this bigger news? “The terrorists on the video seem strangely unconcerned with their safety, as though there was no need for them to feel at risk. When asked about the brazenness of the gathering, Rep. Mike Rogers, Michigan Republican and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, noted on CNN: “We think that they’re feeling empowered. The less pressure you put on them, the more they take that as a victory … .” It now appears al Qaeda was “on the run” in the same way you were able to keep your doctor and hospital. Whether we didn’t know about the gathering, or did and chose to do nothing, it’s another signal to the beasts around the world that no one is home in Washington, D.C. The dangerous circus created by the Obama regime’s rules doesn’t stop there. Sept. 11 victims’ families are asserting they think the Obama administration is deliberately sabotaging the trials at Guantanamo, and insist the FBI is meddling in the cases, according to reports in the Free Beacon.” BRUCE: Obama deliberately emboldening America’s enemies: Team Obama’s bizarre behavior helps Gitmo terrorists foil justice

More Leftist hypocrisy. “As we all know, racism, homophobia and anti-Semitism are very bad and should be condemned. Not only do I condemn all of those things, I’d encourage you to share this quiz to all of your liberal friends so they can wag their fingers right in the faces of the awful people who said all of these terrible things.” Can You Spot The Racist, Homophobic Anti-Semites In This Special 10 Item Quiz?

The Middle Class

There’s a really easy explanation: the elites want the middle class to disappear, and become part of the lower class. “In cities around the world, two-tier societies are becoming increasingly common. While much ink has been spilled over widening income inequality in cities such as New York, where Bill de Blasio rode his “tale of two cities” theme all the way to City Hall, most attempts to solve the problem have focused on the poor, not the middle class. Liberal mayors across the country are proposing an array of policies intended to address income inequality, including minimum-wage hikes—Seattle’s mayor wants to raise it to $15 per hour—affordable-housing mandates, and tax increases on the wealthy. At the same time, they’ve made massive investments in upscale neighborhoods and business districts. But no one is championing the middle class, even rhetorically.” Chicago’s Vanishing Middle Class: In the Windy City and elsewhere, a liberal top-bottom coalition drives it out.

It isn’t working and it will never will work, but I think that was the point all along. “Risk-filled sump, update: If everyone knew the risk pool on the Obamacare exchanges would be sicker-than-normal — as the last sentence of this NYT piece suggests — then why throw the hapless unsubsidized people (e.g. singles making $46,000) into that pool, where their policies will inevitably be more expensive, with more restrictions, than if they were in a more normal pool? Did Obamacare’s designers think they’d be happy about it? This seems like the programs’ core flaw, no? It’s why, despite all the seemingly impressive numbers, Obamacare leaves a bad taste. … $350,000 a year lawyers with fancy employer plans get care from the best doctors and check into Sloan Kettering if they need it, while even previously insured $46,000-a-year suckers can’t, and are told that’s just the price of insuring the uninsured.” Obamacare’s Core Flaw?

This bottomless pit of spending cannot go on. “It is deeply ironic that the White House has embarked on its ACA spending spree at the same time it assures its press auxiliary that the federal deficit is no longer an issue. We are $17 trillion in debt and counting, and the Democrats have no plan other than to spend the nation in to bankruptcy.” THE GROWING FINANCIAL DISASTER OF OBAMACARE

Insurance bought and paid for but there are no doctors that will take it. “Welcome to the wild, wonderful, wacky world of Obamacare. Where else can you sign up for insurance but can’t get treated because your doctor has more common sense than Democratic politicians? Obamacare is a Potemkin Village – on the surface, it appears to be a great deal. But look inside the reality of it and there’s nothing there – high deductible, more expensive, and fewer choices for consumers. A testament to Big Government.” Latest Obamacare accomplishment: ‘Medical Homelessness’

Cocky arrogant jerk.There. I said it. “But a president who is viewed by most Americans as less than honest has no business crowing about a victory that remains anything but obvious. And he certainly should not heap insults on people who for four years have profoundly disagreed with him on the wisdom of Obamacare. To put this as “less than honest” is to be charitable. What Fox News found in its most recent public opinion survey was that 61 percent of Americans believe Obama “lies” about important public issues either “most of the time” or “some of the time.” No other president in living memory has conducted himself in a manner that warranted even asking if such a description was appropriate.” Barack Obama and the politics of lies

We’ve got a terrific line up for our annual Christmas program. First up will be the Ignite Barbershop Quartet. Ignite began singing together after a quartet matching party in November 2015. They are all Champion members of Region 21’s Scottsdale Chorus and they will be singing for us!

After lunch, Congressional District 6 congressman, Representative David Schweikart, will talk to us about what’s happening in Washington DC, and provide us with a status of the Tax Bill working its way through the House of Representatives and Senate.

Finally, member Julia Graham will install our new 2018/2019 officers. We look forward to seeing you and be sure to bring a friend or two or three!